Wild garlic ready now

The wild garlic is sweet and new now and it is a wonderful addition to recipes.

Out strolling and rolling through an ancient deciduous wood we found ourselves next to swathes of beautiful young wild garlic. This is technically known as allium ursinum, or Ramsons.

A large handful of leaves was quickly gathered and later chopped fine to be cooked with a roll of beef brisket, a lovely, inexpensive joint that needs long loving cooking but is wonderfully tender if it gets it. Our chopped wild garlic went into the slow cooker with red onions, shallot-onions, a beef stock cube, a splash of soya sauce, water and some dried herbs. Delicious. The taste of wild garlic leaves is much milder than the more familiar cloves and heads of garlic. Some people eat the leaves raw in salads – but we prefer to play it safe and enjoy them cooked.

The Latin name acknowledges the fondness of bears for the roots of the plant and these are also a delicacy much appreciated by wild boars.

Try a taste of Arbroath

The scallop boats tie up right in the centre of Kirkudbright and there is an excellent fish shop, and fish and chip restaurant, just by the moorings.

Looking at the fish, king scallops and other delights of the sea on the slab, it is always difficult to decide what to choose. Arbroath smokies were eventually selected yesterday.

Arbroath smokes are one of the glories of Scottish cuisine and recently they have been awarded EU protected denomination status – like Champagne and Melton Mowbray pork pies. Arbroath smokes can only come from Arbroath.

Smokies are made with haddock. They are first covered in salt and then tied in pairs by their tails before being hung over poles and smoked over a beech or other hardwood fire.
The process cooks them and imparts a wonderful flavour. They can be eaten cold, just picking off the flesh.

However, most people heat them up and one recommended method is to put your smokies into a pot of water which you then bring to the boil. As soon as the water starts to boil, strain it off and remove the smokes. Put the fish on heated plates, on top of thick slices of bread slathered with lots of salted butter.

Sharon made an excellent suggestion and the smokies were heated as above in milk instead of water, not quite to the boil. So, there was lots of lovely fishy milk to soak into the fresh multi-grain loaf slices.

Bells ring for Osprey arrival

The bells were ringing in Wigtown first thing this morning to announce the arrival of the season's first osprey.

Wigtown has been home to ospreys for several years with pairs arriving to settle into a giant nest and usually raising a couple of chicks. The County Buildings, or equivalent of the Town Hall, has a special bird room on the top floor with a link to a camera focussed on the nest, whose location is secret.

This morning the first arriving member of staff was delighted to see an osprey sitting calmly in the nest. She dashed for the bell rope and rang the bell to alert the town to this happy event. Quickly, people came along and there was great interest in the visitor. Apparently, no ring could be spotted on the bird when it stood up, so it may be a new visitor. Or, perhaps an older one that has lost its ring.

Half a dozen people were quickly on osprey watch at the screen but when we visited, he or she was off flying around. This is an early check in to the nest, last year the first bird arrived two days later.

Great hopes are held for this year's eggs and chicks.

Update: Another osprey arrived at the nest a short time afterwards. It was confirmed that the male was “EP” and the female “H/D” - not, perhaps, the most exciting names in the world for such elegant birds. They have both returned to Wigtown after wintering in Africa. EP has been out and about collecting sticks and started digging an egg hollow in the nest. His partner has enlarged the hollow and moved twigs around to make it comfortable. Meanwhile, swallows have also arrived, being seen in Newton Stewart and the Isle of Whithorn

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Sharon is delighted that her early spring flowers are at last making a showing after the long hard winter. "About time," she says.

Making real bacon

Ken was talking about making bacon during the Second World War.

As a child he lived on a farm and the family pig was a key part of life. Every rural family kept a pig, he said, and slaughtering was carefully planned as sharing was vital. A well-fed pig would produce a lot of meat and this would be shared with neighbours, so that everyone benefited in turn.

Ken's family used to keep their pigs until they weighed about 300lbs, although they were normally slaughtered at about 200lb. The pigs were housed in a comfortable sty and fed well. A copper pot was kept in the kitchen and into that went all the scraps, potato peelings and left-overs from meals. Once a month a ration of meal, or grain, was available and this was mixed with the other food.

The pig always had a pet name but when the time came to slaughter things were efficient. It was hit over the head with a big hammer and the throat cut before being hung up from the rafters. An Irish woman would collect the blood in a bucket to make tasty black puddings.

The next stage was to butcher the pig, with hams and “flitches” being produced. But nothing was wasted and Ken remembered with longing the “chitterlings” which were made by an elderly neighbour. She would take the intestines and turn them inside out over a stick, using her fingers to scrape away the fat. They would then be washed and put in a brine bath for about a week. The chitterlings were then woven into plaits and hung up to dry. They lasted well and when wanted, were taken down, cut up and fried with the bacon. “Lovely,” said Ken.

The bacon was made in the following way. Two large planks of oak were angled together in a V-shape and mounted on trestles. The ends were closed by other bits of oak. The flitches, or sides of the pig, were put into these troughs and steeped in saltpetre, beer and pickling spices. There was nothing very fancy about the spices, said Ken. What grew around was used, such as juniper, with the odd exotic ingredient, such as cloves. The meat was left to soak for about a week. Then it was drained and hung up to dry. The process was not over, as the children of the house then had the important job of regularly rubbing more of the curing mix into the flitches until it matured into fine bacon.

There were plenty of eggs around the farm, with some 40 to 50 chickens running about. They were kept in a barn at night to protect them against foxes and did their egg laying in the straw there. So, fried bacon and eggs were a delight. Ken said that big thick rashers were cut from the flitches, nothing like the paper-thin wafers served today. Occasionally, a larger piece would be cut and put in the oven. Hams, or legs, were also cured and roast ham was a real treat.

He explained how potatoes were kept throughout the winter. A layer of straw would be carefully laid down on a dry, flat, area. Over this would be erected a pyramid-shaped lean-to of about six straw bales. Three to four inches of earth would be packed over these and the potatoes carefully placed inside. A bundle of straw sealed the small entrance. The potatoes were kept snug and dry and could be taken out as needed to feed the hungry family.

“Life was very rural when I was a boy,” said Ken.

Nothing beats Champed Potatoes

John Mactaggart, writing in 1824, described a Galloway dish that could not be beaten.

CHAMPED POTATOES – Mashed potatoes in milk and butter; one of the very best of dishes. I defy the most skillful French cook that ever lived, to make a dish of a more delicious nature; and no confectioner's shop in the kingdom has anything to compare with them: they are truly glorious belly trimmer.

From: The Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia, by John MacTaggart. First Edition 1824. Second Edition 1876., London, Hamilton, Adams and Co. Glasgow: Thomas D Morrison.

Wigtown's market will be back in town from Saturday, March 19, which is good news for food lovers in particular. With an excellent fresh vegetable stall and local farmers and producers selling their food there is always plenty to tempt. The cake stalls are a particular temptation. The market is held next to the market cross - as it has been for hundreds of years.

Emergency haggis recipe

You know what it's like, some days you are just so rushed off your feet that you don't have time to make a proper haggis, or perhaps you have run out of sheeps' stomachs.

Here's a quick recipe for haggis that should keep the family satisfied.

Half a pound of ox liver
4 ounces of shredded suet
4 ounces of pinhead oatmeal
one onion
black pepper
salt

Put the liver in a pan with the chopped onion and teacup of water and boil for about a quarter of an hour. Toast the oatmeal in the oven until it goes light brown. Then mince up the liver and onion and make the liquid back up to a cup with more water. Mix everything together with the seasoning. Put into a covered greased bowl and steam for two hours.

No more no haggis misery!

Stuffed Sausages and Baked Bean Flan

Simple recipes are the best – and they don't get much simpler than the recipes for stuffed sausages and for baked bean flan. These come from a recipe book probably published about 50 years ago to raise money for the building of a new church hall.

Stuffed Sausages: For the stuffing – quarter of a tsp of breadcrumbs, one ounce of margarine, 1 desertspoon of chopped parsley, one tsp of finely chopped onion, one egg yolk. Also – half a pound of sausages and four rashers of bacon.

Method: Melt marg and add all stuffing ingredients together. Make cut the length of each sausage, taking care not to cut through completely. Fill with stuffing. Remove rind from bacon and wrap rasher round each sausage. Bake at 425F or mark 6 for 20 to 30 minutes.

Baked Bean Flan: Six ounces of shortcrust pastry, one tin of baked beans, one medium onion sliced, four ounces of chopped and cooked bacon, two large potatoes cooked and sliced, grated cheese.

Method: Line a tin approximately two and a half inches deep with shortcrust pastry. Cover bottom of tin with baked beans. Add a layer of sliced onion, a layer of bacon and a layer of sliced potato. Cover top with grated cheese and cook in oven for 30-40 minutes.

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Political potatoes

Spring is springing

With the snowdrops, narcissus and crocus flowers providing banks of white and of colour, the new gardening and growing season is soon soon to start and so it is also time to revive this blogspot, says Sharon.

“I'm looking forward to getting cracking, even though I've got about the smallest garden in the world I've got great plans,” says Sharon.

A visit to a garden centre at the weekend saw row after row of seed potatoes on offer. In a tiny garden there isn't a lot of room for a potato field but Sharon's sister, Deborah, has kindly given her a plastic/fabric bag which is specially designed to grow potatoes. The idea is that you put a bit of soil on the bottom, add half a dozen seed potatoes and when the shoots grow through, add more soil. Carry on like this until the top of the bag is reached.

Apparently, it's best to plant potatoes in this area in April, when the threat of frosts has receded. But the potatoes are on sale now at the start of March, so they will have to be put away for a month or so. This will let the little shoots develop.

A bewildering display of potato varieties was on offer at the garden centre. We chose two types, with political connections – Gladstone and Lord Rosebery. Gladstone was the distinguished Victorian Prime Minister and Lord Rosebery took over from him when he retired in 1894. However, Rosebery didn't seem to enjoy being PM very much and he resigned in June 1895.

Rosebery came from a distinguished Scottish background and went to Eton and Oxford. At Christ Church he bought a racehorse and was told that undergraduates were not allowed to do this. He was offered the choice of giving up the horse or his studies and so gave up the latter. He had thee ambitions, to become Prime Minister, marry an heiress and win the Derby. He achieved all three, marrying the greatest heiress in Britain, Hannah, the only child of Baron Meyer de Rothschild. He won the Derby three times. Rosebery owned 12 homes, including the magnificent Dalmeny estate, near Edinburgh, which he used for political house parties.

One source says that not much is known about the Rosebery Potato but it is believed to have been grown at Dalmeny. It is a heritage variety and is said to be well suited for boiling, mashing and roasting. The Gladstone Potato was “first listed” in 1930, although it was thought to be the most popular variety in Ireland. It is a “creamy-fleshed potato with a great floury texture.”